The results of the decade-long study — which followed 30,000 B.C. drug users taking two opioid alternatives — are expected to help doctors better treat patients.
A B.C. study tracking more than 30,000 drug users over a decade has found patients prescribed the synthetic opioid methadone were up to 40 per cent more likely to stick to the treatment compared to the alternative front-line medication.
The findings offer a window into the effectiveness of what have become increasingly ubiquitous treatments at specialized drug treatment centres in B.C. “When people are engaged in treatment, they are nearly two and a half times less likely to die,” Nosyk said. Fentanyl was first detected by the BC Coroners Service in 2012. Within four years, health authorities declared a public health emergency as the drug became the leading cause of overdose deaths.
Nosyk said that since the start of their research, only two per cent of patients successfully weaned themselves off either opioid alternative. The opioid alternatives were found to lead to a particularly low rate of overdose deaths. Those who stay on methadone or buprenorphine/naloxone were found to have a mortality rate of 0.13 per cent or less — even after the arrival of fentanyl, the study found.
But those patients still have to get to a pharmacy to pick up the drugs on a regular basis, a challenge for those who are disabled or who live in many rural parts of the province.
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